Chapter 170 Polkka
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
—Keldan City, downtown—
The place was smoky and loud, the kind of tavern where the tables were always a little sticky and the laughter always just a bit too sharp. It was one of the few remaining haunts where Yugan and Elandric folks—now a dwindling minority in Keldan—still gathered to drink themselves silly, and tonight Ayumu had wandered in, half out of curiosity and half because the smell of something sweet had drifted from the doorway.
He was halfway through a small bowl of blueberries—real blueberries, which in his old world were supposed to be from South America, but here had apparently been eaten since forever—when the music caught him off guard. His head snapped up.
That melody—no way.
It was almost exactly like *Ievan Polkka*, the Finnish folk tune from back home, the Elandric crowd stomping along and belting out the words in their own language, voices bright and wild. Even Yoluminette was there, of course—on her day off from Knight duties, already flushed from the drinks, twirling across the floor in a swirl of casual clothes like she’d shed her armor and half her inhibitions at the door.
Someone was strumming a strange guitar-shaped thing that looked suspiciously like a balalaika [T/N: a Russian triangular string instrument], its high plucked notes skipping over the noise as the singer belted each line like it was a war cry.
Ayumu blinked at his blueberries. *…There’s polka here? In this world?*
He must’ve said it out loud, because Yoluminette and the other Elandric drinkers froze, then snapped toward him as one.
”Excuse me?! Even if you are a Lord, we will NOT let that slide!!” Yoluminette slammed her tankard down, amber liquid sloshing. “It’s not *polka*ꐦ It’s *Polkka*ꐦ!”
”Yeah, that’s rightꐦ an’ don’t forget it, kiddoꐦ keep yer ears openꐦ!” another Elandric man barked.
”Eek—s-sorry!! I’m sorry!! I’m so, so sorry!!” Ayumu yelped, hands raised in surrender as they glared daggers at him.
They eventually forgave him—or at least got distracted when the music shifted to a bouncy *Jenka* folk dance. The mood loosened, smiles spreading, mugs clinking. But then the tune changed again, slipping into something that sounded an awful lot like *Säkkijärven Polkka*—and just like that, the Yugan men who’d been grinning and stomping along froze, their faces darkening like storm clouds rolling in.
”Oi. The hell d’you think you’re playing!! That place… that’s Leningra now!!”
Apparently, back during the old Yugan Empire days, the city had been conquered and renamed, and hearing it called by its old Elandric name—Karelia—while they were already swimming in vodka sent them straight into a rage.
”Polkka, what kinda name is that, huhꐦ”
”Yeahꐦ stop callin’ it Polkka like it ain’t grossꐦ”
”Call it Polechka or Poletchike, damn itꐦ”
The Elandric side booed and jeered right back, and the whole place went from rowdy to riot in under ten seconds.
One man hurled a bottle straight at someone’s head.
Another flashed a knife from under his coat.
Someone else smashed a bottle right into a man’s face, glass and ale spraying across the floor.
No one tried to stop it. Not really. This, for better or worse, was just a normal night in Yugan culture.
Even Yoluminette had joined in—of course she had—laughing as she swung a barstool like a war hammer, which was… troubling on several levels, honestly.
”…Ah… I guess… as a Lord, I should probably… say something about this…?” Ayumu muttered vaguely, just as a man came charging at him with a chair raised overhead.
He stuck his foot out, tripping the man hard, and watched him crash face-first into the opposite table with a satisfying *wham*. Ayumu sighed, brushing a fleck of blueberry from his sleeve.
Chaos. Pure, unfiltered chaos.
Notes:
• Yoluminette – Elandric warrior from Keldan, tall and sharp-eyed; first in Ch.146; master swordswoman using Ten-Man Slash; no family known; fought and slew bandits before Ayumu arrived, then joined his forces; stoic yet prideful, often escalates fights over petty things like cream puffs. takes “senpai” pride very seriously
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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